Change is good

So 2008 is now upon us and it's my 40th year! It seems fitting that I spent December 31st 2007 clearing out my loft in readiness for various work about to be undertaken at Dubdog mansions.
They say life begins at 40, well it better as I've now cleared out my past. In some ways it was (literally) becoming a weight on my mind - the mess being ever present in the loft above us. Everytime I went up there to store away or retrieve something it was becoming a daunting business. All that's left now are carefully boxed photographs, miscellaneous computer equipment, my PGCE papers and carefully stored design work and posters.

In amongst the bad bedroom poetry of a fifteen year old, sub O' level standard sketchbooks, a political library that included leaflets pocketed from a hundred demos and pamphlets from a hundred and one organisations playing at being revolutionaries, I came across some interesting things.
First up were some old school reports. These make interesting reading and show that teachers in the 1980s still had time to write decent, constructive comments regarding the 'whole' person and display a genuine concern for their students. Not sure the same can be said today. I can reveal the highest grade I ever got was an A- for Art (I'm still proud of that) and the reports as a whole show that I wasn't really in the right mindset to want to study, I was far more interested in music and smoking and pubs and politics - my real interest in studying came some 14 years later.



Then comes my Live Aid ticket, saved from the back of a scrapbook that now sits in the recycling bin.



Before safely storing old photos I managed to scan and email embarrassing pictures to old school friends who got in touch last year through Friends Reunited. I haven't been in touch with them for over 20 years so I'll save them the pain of posting them here but I was dismayed when Ms Dubdog asked if a picture of a friend sporting a Whitesnake patch on his denim jacket was me! I mean, Whitesnake, come on. I thought she knew me better than that!

Some several trips to the local recycling centre, a trip to the Red Cross charity shop and several things posted on Freecycle and we still have overflowing recycling bins at home...


Studio recycling bin


Recycling wheelie bin

And we still have boxes of stuff waiting to be dropped off at charity shops...



And boxes of stuff for Freecyclers to come and pick up...



But all sensitive and revealing documents are now shredded and deposited on the compost heap...




...and after all this sorting I finally have somewhere to store all my cameras in one place in the Dubdog studio...



So, I'm ready for my 40th year. I've uncluttered the loft of the debris of my past and it feels nicely cathartic, like I've also uncluttered my head a little. Next up is a redesign of the studio after the work on the house is completed in the next couple of months.
Change is good. Happy 2008.